Tag Archives: trailer

Loads from days past

Here’s a gallery of photos of various loads Jack has hauled or encountered in his days of driving the Dalton.  Click on the first one and scroll to the right.

Coming back from Prudhoe with a dozer.
Heading north with a dozer in the summertime, fueling up at Hilltop.
Hauling a crane.
Making room for a wide load climbing 3 Mile on the Dalton.
Chained up to start the trip from Hilltop going north (Jack was pushing)..
A Stryker, going to Anchorage.
A turbine in a box in Healy, going to Prudhoe.
Eighty foot pipe for a pipeline.
Who knows what’s in this mod going to Prudhoe.
A couple of cooling units in Glennallen after they were barged to Valdez.
The same kind of load, but turned around and very dirty. Fueling up in Coldfoot.
Not a very big loader but weight restrictions during break up resulted in this long trailer.
Somebody is being funny.
An insulated tank from Greer Welding.
Same load. This tank can sit on its end or on its side.
Pushing a big Volvo loader.
A mod, not covered with plastic.
The same mod – Jack is pushing it to Prudhoe.
Twelve wide trailer with mod going north.
The same trailer (with booster decked up) being pushed back to Fairbanks.

 

 

Heavy haul load with 2 push trucks

For some reason, years ago, Jack documented this heavy haul load quite thoroughly so why not share it with you guys.  This is a 2006 heavy haul load with 2 push trucks going up Atigun Pass on the Dalton Highway, and coming down the other side.  The load might be some kind of heater, maybe to heat the oil going down the pipeline, but Jack’s not totally sure.  It’s an outside unit so didn’t need to be covered.  Click on the first one and scroll to the right.

Leaving Hilltop, nice and clean
Jack’s push truck
Climbing the Shelf before Atigun Pass
Starting up Atigun Pass
At the top
Bottom of the northbound side of the pass

Two truckers caught in an avalanche

Two truckers were caught in an avalanche Monday night on the Dalton.  Jack was not involved and neither of the drivers were seriously hurt.  The road is now closed and the State is working on trying to trigger avalanches before they reopen.  We’ve had tons of snow, seems like a record breaking year for snow actually, but for some reason no one made the decision to deal with this before it got to this point.

There is a short dash cam video on the Alaska DOT Facebook page.  And from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

Two tankers in an avalanche - The Jack Jessee Blog

Photo credit: Jonothan James Kasak via the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner website

“One of the trucks that was stuck was a tanker carrying methanol; the other one carried glycol. When the highway reopens, the state Department of Environmental Conservation will evaluate whether there were any spills. The other two trucks were able to proceed with minimal assistance from a Department of Transportation crew, Bailey said.

Atigun Pass is one of a handful of mountain passes where work crews frequently fire Howitzer artillery at snowcovered slopes to trigger avalanches in order to prevent unplanned slides. Avalanche gates were installed on the south side of the pass three years ago to stop vehicles headed into avalanche danger. This was the first time the gate has been used.”

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Overturned truck

Another set of photos from years past… this guy was coming over a small rise and when he got to the top he saw some hunters in a pick up truck turning around in the road, so he was forced to go off the side and into the snow instead of hit them.  Unfortunate.

Lost load, an explosion box

Years ago Jack came across this load that fell off a truck north of Coldfoot.  Click on the first one and scroll to the right.  More info on the captions.

 

Jack is pretty sure this is an “explosion box”, a portable unit that’s probably used as a break room next to a rig most of the time, but it’s most crucial use is as an explosion shelter. If there’s a an explosion individuals can stay in it for protection. It’s actually upside down here and the damaged attached boxes are probably heaters or ventilation units.
The driver was looking to the left, drove off the road on the right, then turned the steering wheel abruptly to get back on the road, breaking the chains that held the box down and tossing it off the trailer.
Marks where the box first hit the ground.
This is most likely how the fallen load was tied down. This truck is carrying a similar unit.
There are four chains here. The fallen load was probably tied down correctly but the force was enough to break pieces of the trailer, probably not the chains themselves.

Jack’s first heavy haul load

This was Jack’s first heavy haul load.  He wasn’t actually part of the a heavy haul division yet but obviously it was a landmark load for him.

You can see the partially melted snow and the dry road.  We are almost to that point in the year right now, and you can probably believe that it is an exciting time for us Alaskans who have snow 8 or 9 months of the year!

Happy Spring and Happy Easter!

Jack's first heavy haul load

Load of pipe goes off the road

The drive line of this truck broke coming down 5 mile last summer.  Just like putting it in neutral, the motor didn’t help slow him down.  While trying to stop the truck going downhill the driver smoked his brakes, then coasted up 6 mile hill.  His brakes wouldn’t hold him when he coasted to a stop, they were too hot.  So then he rolled backwards into the ditch.  There’s more than accidents that go on up on the road but most of it isn’t exciting enough to post. 🙂

Click to enlarge.

 

Huge mod is pushed up “Koyukuk”

The hill that drivers call “Koyukuk” is right next to the Koyukuk River and it’s one of the steepest on the Dalton.  It’s about 30 miles south of Coldfoot.  The video was taken last winter.

Jack happened to be there to document this huge mod being pushed up the hill by push trucks and also being steered from the back because it’s so long.  If you look close you can see someone standing outside on the load as it goes up the hill – he’s steering the rear end as it goes around the curves.  The guy doing the steering is one of the former owners of Carlile and he comes up the Dalton for these types of loads that need some special care.  (Carlile was sold to Saltchuk Corporation a while ago.)

In case you are wondering, the truck is going pretty slow, about 5 miles an hour in 3rd gear.  The last thing you ever want to do, Jack says, is change gears when you’re going that slow with that much weight since you’ll stop before you get it into a different gear.  If you stop it’ll take a while to get going again and without the momentum you’re putting a lot of strain on the truck and there’s too much potential for breaking something.  The years Jack spent in heavy haul were great years he says, but he doesn’t miss it.

 

Accident on the Parks Hwy, diesel spilled

This truck wrecked on the Parks Highway yesterday.  The driver is fine but he was cited for negligent driving.  The accident spilled about 2000 gallons of diesel into a ditch.  Below is a link to a short article in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner about it.

http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/fuel-tanker-spills-gallons-in-parks-highway-crash/article_b4c220f2-e851-11e4-9c95-cfcef7850e83.html

 

Accident on the Parks Highway

Photo by Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities via Newsminer.com